/Design as reconciliation

It’s not as though I’ve kept my love for international affairs secret, or the fact that I think a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine should be a global priority — I had a good rant about it some time ago. The issue is particularly salient in light of the recently stagnating peace talks between Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A friend and I had a discussion last weekend about how to reconcile sympathy for the Jewish cause with their relatively aggressive presence in the region.

Though the peace talks themselves are at a standstill, reconciliation can be found at the grassroots level — for example, the popular program Seeds of Peace and the lesser-known Sadaka Reut, both of which work to bring Palestinian and Israeli youth together in summer programs and outreach trips, or the Bereaved Parents’ Circle, a support group for Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost children in the conflict.

And then there’s this typeface.

Seriously! Einat Kayless Argaman, a web designer based in Israel, drafted a typeface for her graduate work called “Identity,” where each of the characters can simultaneously be read in Hebrew or Arabic. It’s really beautiful; sort of a visual manifestation of the things for which the groups I mentioned above (and others) are striving: a common thread between two seemingly disparate cultures.

I am continually fascinated by the ways in which people from both Israel and Palestine attempt to reach out to the other side. “Identity” is just one example of an everyday commodity that has been re-purposed in a way that challenges norms and fosters dialogue between two separate but maybe not-so-dissimilar people.